Hobbs wins in OT over Lady Cats

CLOVIS — With a chance to lock up the District 4-5A girls soccer championship, Clovis High came up a bit short on Saturday.

Sophomore Brianna Baker found the back of the net just over three minutes into overtime, and Hobbs pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Lady Wildcats at Leon Williams Stadium.

With the win, the Lady Eagles (8-9-2 overall) pulled into a share of first place with Clovis (15-4), both standing 4-1 in district play. Each was scheduled for its district and regular-season finale on Thursday, with Hobbs hosting Carlsbad while the Lady Cats are at Roswell High.

After Saturday’s play, CHS has outscored its foes 9-4 in district tilts, giving it a one-goal edge over the Lady Eagles (13-9). If the teams end up tied, goal differential in the district is the next tiebreaker, since the Lady Cats won the earlier meeting at Hobbs 2-1.

For the most part, the Lady Eagles appeared to outplay Clovis, which needed a penalty-kick goal from senior midfielder Caley Adams with just over nine minutes remaining to force overtime.

“It was pretty sloppy on our end,” Lady Cats coach Ray Rodriguez said. “Our problem has been consistency all season long. We have a hard time putting together back-to-back (good) games.”

Naturally, Hobbs coach Alex Lopez was happy to come away victorious.

“The girls fought hard,” she said. “It’s always tough to win in Clovis. We pressured for the majority of the game, for sure.”

The contest went into halftime scoreless, but it took less than two minutes for the Lady Eagles to break through when play resumed, getting a goal to the upper left corner from senior Kali Vasquez.

Lopez was pleased with how her team responded after Adams’ PK, which gave Clovis a bit of a lift.

“That’s going to get any team going,” she said. “But the girls persevered today and battled through.”

Despite the relative dominance by Hobbs, shots on goal were even at just 3-3 for the match.

“We’ve just got to go and win,” Rodriguez said of Tuesday’s finale. “We’ve got to get some goals.”

Hobbs boys down CHS — At Hobbs, the Wildcats made a late run but fell short in a 4-2 District 4-5A setback to the Eagles.

Hobbs (15-3-1, 5-0 district) broke away from a 1-0 game with two goals in a span of about two minutes early in the second half. The Cats, though, cut the margin to 3-2 with just over seven minutes left on tallies from sophomores Ibad Mesbah and Angel Nunez.

Hobbs finally locked it up when sophomore forward Ryan Middleton found the back of the net with under three minutes to go in the match.

“That’s commendable; we improved on the first time,” said Cats coach Greg Trujillo, referring to a 7-0 setback to the Eagles at Leon Williams Stadium on Oct. 1. “We played a different setup; we played a little quicker and we moved the ball better.”

Junior Josh Chavez had a pair of goals for the Eagles, including one in the first two minutes when he was able to get around a Cats defender to score.

“The worst part of our game is in the air,” Trujillo said. “We gave up three goals when we got caught flat-footed.”

Clovis (4-12-2, 0-4-1) completed district play on Tuesday night at Roswell High. The Cats’ season finale is on Saturday at Lovington.

Artesia edges Lady Rams — At Artesia, eighth-grader Abigail Jowers scored the day’s only goal early in the second half to give the Lady Bulldogs a hard-fought District 4-4A girls soccer win on Saturday.

In the teams’ earlier matchup in Portales, Artesia (8-10, 3-1 district) had rolled to an 8-1 triumph. This time, PHS coach Bonnie Britton said, the Lady Rams (0-12-4, 0-4) made some adjustments.

“They definitely didn’t run over us like the last time,” PHS girls coach Bonnie Britton said. “I think the girls left feeling like we’d played a good match.

“We moved some (players) around a lot. We’re getting better.”

Artesia had just a 6-4 advantage in shots on goal and 3-2 in corner kicks. Sophomore goalkeeper Lissette Gomez had five saves for the Lady Rams.

Portales hosted district rival Lovington on Tuesday night. The Lady Rams wrap up the campaign on Saturday at district-leading Roswell Goddard.

CHS harriers compete in Albuquerque — Clovis High sophomore Sammy Fuentes took 10th place in a field of 175 runners on Saturday in the Class 5A boys portion of the Academy Extravaganza cross country meet, hosted by Albuquerque Academy.

Fuentes posted a 5K time of 16 minutes, 30.77 seconds for the Wildcats, who finished 19th in a 22-team field with 430 points. Led by individual winner Thomas Croshaw (15:37.33), Volcano Vista claimed team honors with 36 points.

On the girls’ side, the Lady Wildcats were 15th out of 20 teams with 420 points. Rio Rancho Cleveland had the top two runners, led by Leah Mutey (18.01.60), and took team honors with 62 points.

Brooke Newcomer, one of four eighth-graders running for the Lady Cats, posted the team’s best finish at 64th place (out of 161 runners) in 22:35.45.

CHS cross country coach Liz Ledezma said it was basically a preview of the upcoming 5A state meet.

“We saw how we compared against everyone,” she said. “Our kids all ran faster times (than in last year’s Extravaganza).”

Clovis ends its regular season on Saturday in the Santa Fe Prep Invite, then will host the District 4-5A meet on Oct. 28 at Ned Houk Park.